MasterChef Australia – Justine v Guy Grossi

by Reality Raver

After MasterChef Australia judge Matt Preston’s lascivious caressing of a paella crust on last night’s episode, the sauciest it got tonight was when Gary Mehigan described an aspect of guest chef Guy Grossi dish as “Tight, round, firm.”

I felt very sorry for Justine when it was revealed the dish for the challenge tonight was Lobster with a Russian Salad, Beetroot Emulsion and Poached Quail’s Egg. If it had been a diving event at the Olympics the dish its degree of difficulty would be rated a three.

I have to confess not a great love of Russian Salad it reminds me of something that would come up after a big night out with its bits of carrots and peas in it. However I am sure Guy Grossi from Grossi Florentine version would be delicious.

So poor Justine in 90 minutes had to cook a lobster, make a beetroot emulsion, cook the vegetables for the salad, make the mayonaise, poach a quails egg, plus plate the dish. Thank god Julie did not win the invention test this week, because she would have had a physical, emotional, and spiritual breakdown in the first 15 minutes.

It looked like Justine was running out of time, but since they never showed us any clocks it was hard to figure out how much time she had left. Guy finished first and came around to assist. Whilst this was occurring one of Guy’s lobster’s medallions slid off his plated up dish into his beetroot emulsion.

Sam whispered “That they should not tell him,” but then Poh had a passive-aggressive moment when she yelled out to Justine “His medallions fallen off his dish,” and Guy was standing right next to her. I don’t think Poh wanted Justine to win….

Judging was very close, and did anyone else think that Gary Mehigan was getting some pleasure about telling Guy that he had not liked the texture of his mayonaisse.

It was very close and Guy only won by 1 point as each judge gave him a seven to take his score to 21. Personally I don’t think that was very good for a two hat restaurant dish. Also Guy did not look very happy with this score.

Finally as host why does Gary thank and say goodbye to Guy when really it should be host’s Sarah Wilson’s role. If she is going to host let her.

You’re right about the clocks – it’s like being in Vegas. It’s quite disconcerting, given how focussed they are on calling the time on regular days. Chris did seem to be worried about Justine’s ability to get everything together in time, or he was trying to help build tension, but the powers-that-be didn’t capitalise on that.

Poh definitely let Grossi know about his failing lobster tower on purpose. Not fair, but I’m not ready to lose Justine, so the result was a good one.

Was it just me, or were George’s comments inconsistent with the mark he gave Justine? I thought his response was the most positive of the lot so was completely surprised that his mark was the lowest.

Eh, I don’t mind Poh telling Grossi about the fall from his dish. I don’t think it was unfair that she did that. It’s a competition, after all. I like her fierceness! But my favourite contestant is Julia, can’t wait until she returns. Anyways, since this is a competition, it always puzzles me that the contestants help each other out in the chef cook-offs, pressure tests, etc. It always strikes me as being a bit like the blue team helping out the red team in the team challenges.

So nobody has commented about Lucas’ fondness for Justine! Wasn’t anyone but moi a little surprised to see him pop up in her bathroom to wish her luck and peck her on the cheek? Just implies a level of intimacy to come into someone’s bathroom “mid toilette”. Lucas is a cutie though.

Poh was a cheeky girl pointing out Grossi’s dish had flopped. I think they will begin to play up Poh for some drama in the coming weeks now that Kate and Aaron are gone.

If tonights’ dish is the chef’s “signature dish” is it really the case that Grossi got the mayonnaise wrong? Or, did Justine get the recipe wrong. Is the competition to produce the “best” of the type of dish and make changes (ie to type/consistency of the mayo) or for the contestant to replicate the “signature dish”. Seems to be a potential inconsistency here – ie thinking back to Michelle getting blasted when she didn’t precisely follow the squid recipe.

Was the score really so close? If the tastings are blind, how are they able to always build it up to the last vote? Isn’t it entirely possible that the winner would be declared after the first or second judge reveals his vote? If this doesn’t happen, it’s just another aspect that is contrived and not a competition.

And what would happen if more than three contestants beat the professional chef? Would the competition end and go right to the finals? More cook offs? Or just ain’t gonna happen so no need to have rules around it?

Finally, Andre continues to bug me. He is a nabob of negativity. Some of his dishes have been pretty bad and bagged by the judges. Unlike Lucas who I think may be the only other contestant who hasn’t been in bottom three of anything (is this true?). Lucas unlike Andre has had decent to very good comments on every dish. It is just strange Andre has not shown up in any of bottom three.

CG – that Lucas bathroom scene was bizarre! Equally bizarre, though, was the fact that the cameras were in there with Justine. It’ll be interesting to see who she picks on her team for tonight’s challenge. Will she pick Lucas? Who will she choose as opposing captain?

Andre really is becoming the invisible man as far as actual cooking goes, and Mr Everywhere for the commentary. “Nabob of negativity”!

Sarah was looking all kinds of fine in this episode. Just melting the screen really, like a lobster in a pot, she was really cooking.

And to watch Justine face off against the chef, even better, a whole ep on my fave to enter the final week. Good thing she lost by a point, would have sorely missed her presence if she won and was sent straight through to the finals. Which does seem the disadvantage as brought up before here RR.

I had noticed the Lucas barging into the bathroom. But my thought was maybe the pack go ahead to the set to be there for when Justine enters, and he did want to say good luck. Or it was a producer set up. He obviously knew she was not naked as a camera was already in there.

They do seem to be fixated with bathroom shots. Are they trying to show us that we are getting the households intimate moments.

Wertsemmel – Good call on mark manipulation, I had not even thought about the fact that George got to flash his score last.

CG – I agree with you thoughts there is a general inconsistency on what the aim is to do with the dishes. I thought Guy’s looked different to the original one. His mayo did seem a bit thin. We had hickeygate last week is it mayogate this week?

Injera – it crossed my mind that Justine did indeed run out of time and they had to give her extra time otherwise she would have had no dish to give the judges to taste.

Anon – I think as the competition goes on the yelling out from the balcony will diminish as final weeks gets closer.

Batterly – I particularly liked the top Sarah was wearing last night, does anyone know if any particular brand of clothing company is clothing her?

Sarah Wilson has today twittered: “Thunderbird-like rise from ocean of contestants + MASSIVE plot twist (stay tuned kids!)”. Assume it refers to tonight’s show where they go out fishing? What plot twist? Return of previously elminated contestants…too early for that old chestnut, isn’t it? Or perhaps that remaining folks from HomeMade are gonna join MC given HM has been such a disaster channel 9. Now that would be fun!